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Federal Parliament has risen for 2021 and it would have to be said it was a less-than-auspicious end to the parliamentary year.  At a time when the nation is in desperate need of courageous, positive and decisive leadership, Australians have been hard pressed to find that in Canberra and our States of late, with headlines unfortunately reflecting the questionable behaviour of some of our ...
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HSC exams are underway for our Class of 2021 and to say they’ve had to do the hard yards in the past two years is an understatement. This cohort has had to endure more than any other group of seniors in recent memory, and whatever their final results they deserve to hold their heads high and know when it comes to resilience, they’ve all scored an A. At this time, too, given all the challenges ...
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There have been many lessons from the past 18 months – many of them learned the hard way - but one of the things we’ve come to understand is a successful outcome heavily relies on having a shared goal, uniting people behind it and moving forward together. Things are more difficult, and success more elusive, if different parts of the one organisation, business, industry, community or even nation, ...
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Great seasonal conditions and an anticipated bumper harvest is putting smiles on the faces of farmers in many parts of the nation, and in NSW and Queensland it’s a welcome continuation of the recovery from years of crippling drought. But in Western Australia, the excitement around another big winter harvest is being tempered by the reality that new farm machinery ordered for the season ...
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One of the enduring images from the pandemic will be of bare supermarket shelves as people turned their feelings of anxiety and frustration towards their pantry, in part no doubt, as a way to regain some control in a time of enormous uncertainty. Of course, there was never a risk of our nation running out of food – the Australian Food and Grocery Council reassured Australians at the height of ...
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At the turn of the last century, agriculture was in its relative infancy, but turn the clock forward more than 120 years and it has emerged as a global giant that today employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars for the world’s economies. When many think of agriculture, they think of farmers, but the range of jobs that now underpin the sector has grown as quickly as the industry ...
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It’s the silent, unseen threat to Australian agriculture that costs farm businesses millions of dollars a year and is indiscriminate in the industries it strikes. Spray drift is unfortunately an ongoing threat to agriculture and one farmer on the receiving end of the devastation can do little to combat. At the same time, the application of pesticides remains vital to many ag sectors to maximise ...
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When this year’s Federal Budget was handed down in May, one of the announcements that attracted attention was the allocation of $200 million over four years for a National Soil Strategy. The Strategy establishes a framework for how our nation will value, manage and improve its soil for the next 20 years, setting out three main goals around prioritising soil health, encouraging innovation and ...
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Regional living is now officially ‘cool’. Of course, this isn’t news to those of us who already call our towns and regional cities home. We’ve always appreciated the benefits of a regional address and wondered why everyone couldn’t see the appeal. But now it seems the secret’s out and our city cousins are making the move in greater numbers than ever. The pandemic has caused many of us to ...
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Mental health services, the push to grow the nation’s agriculture workforce and infrastructure spending are among the wins for rural and regional Australia from Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s third budget. Seftons’ Managing Director Robbie Sefton said delivering a budget during the current pandemic crisis was always going to be a challenging task, but she was happy to see the focus remain ...
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There’s an old joke that goes something like this and the punch line is one that should resonate with all farmers and anyone interested in a changing climate. What happens when you cross an Irishman with a Scotsman? You get someone who likes to drink, but doesn’t want to pay for it. That same odd-couple combo also applies to Australian consumers when it comes to food production; especially ...
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WHEN it comes to implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in Australia, we can’t afford to make any dumb moves; especially resorting to complacency or navel gazing. But if we’re smart and savvy and think strategically, to act on a bold vision, it’ll ensure we optimise future benefits of the AI revolution; especially making Australian farmers and agribusiness more efficient ...
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LET’S face it – there’s very little to get truly excited about in the news media these days. If it’s not a story about the Coronavirus pandemic, or the latest political or Royal scandal, or an sporting player’s off-field antics, then it’s likely to be about droughts, floods, bush-fires or some other looming natural catastrophe. Amid this seemingly constant environment of conflict and ...
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More than anything, the current clash between Facebook and the Australian Government represents an ideal opportunity for agriculturalists and rural communities to stop, think and rediscover how we all individually interact with social media, both personally and professionally. Firstly, being blocked from sharing news articles with your friends and contacts via Facebook isn’t the end of the ...
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I’d like to pause for a moment to reflect on the recent Australian of the Year Awards; especially the strong values, deep sense of personal purpose and achievements shared by each of the winners, which we as Australians can all be proud of. Firstly, as the Deputy Chair of the National Australia Day Council Board, and as a Board member since 2010, I’ve been fortunate to observe the ...
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NSW Minister of Agriculture, Adam Marshall with the states first Agriculture Commissioner Daryl Quinlivan at a Coffs Harbour banana farm. Photo: NSW DPI. Image credit - The Land I’m looking forward to seeing how newly appointed NSW Agricultural Commissioner Daryl Quinlivan can deliver positive outcomes through this first-time role. Daryl took up the challenge in August and recently outlined ...
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Veteran Western Australian journalist Ken Wilson’s recent retirement, after 54 years in the saddle, including 42 as an agricultural reporter, has prompted me to open-up an important discussion about the accumulation of knowledge in our industry. Not just how this knowledge is harvested, but also how it’s shared and how it can be applied. But before going further into these observations, ...
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Recently I read an inspiring article by demographer, author and newspaper columnist Bernard Salt and felt compelled to share my thoughts and feelings about it. I’ve read a few of Bernard’s books and always find his writing style to be open, energising, encouraging and empathetic. When it comes to the nation’s mood, his finger is firmly on the pulse and his words also demonstrate great ...
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Robbie Sefton believes more people need to come out and declare that a typical Australian farmer is a young, enterprising woman defined by their unyielding passion. Image credit - The Land When we think about what makes Australian farmers tick, typical characteristics spring to mind such as; hard-working, resilient, stoic, patient and enduring. We think about our farmers as being humble, ...
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Royal Shows are integral to the fabric of regional communities and do so much, not only for agriculture, but for the community in general. Image credit - The Land There’s nothing quite like that magical feeling you get after handing over your ticket and walking through the gates, at the annual Agricultural Royal Show. After 12-months of anticipation, those first few steps seem surreal ...
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From little things big things grow. And there’s no better living example of this saying than the incredible results achieved by the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) group – founded by two young women from the bush who wanted to fix a problem. A big problem. What started as determined team of volunteers six years ago has now evolved into a professional service ...
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The Centre for the Study of Agribusiness (CSA) at Marcus Oldham College is proud to present, Marcus Oldham AgTalk. Hosted by the director of the CSA, David Cornish. Why do farmers need to care about social license? With Robbie Sefton ...
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As someone who grew up on an irrigation farm in southern New South Wales and now runs a dryland farm in northern New South Wales, I have always been proud to live and work in rural and regional Australia, and to call the Basin home. I recently had the honour of Chairing the Independent Panel assessing the social and economic impacts of water reform on Basin communities. The Panel undertook ...
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Australian agriculture has a goal: to generate $100 billion in farm gate output by 2030. Getting there is going to take all the resourcefulness we've got, especially if the effects are to carry well beyond 2030. Laid out in 2017 by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), with the support of its members, the ambitious 2030 Roadmap requires that we up the ante of every aspect of agriculture – not ...
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We've heard a lot about rural industries’ "social licence" over the past few years. What is it, actually? In a word, it is trust. It is the community trusting that farmers, fishers and foresters share broader social values on matters like environmental stewardship, animal welfare and water resources. When trusted, primary producers and their supply chains are largely left alone to pursue ...
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Most of us of a certain age will have known or heard of someone born when wool and grain was carried from farm to railhead, or to port, on bullock drays. We’ve probably all seen vintage photos in country pubs proudly displaying magnificent teams of bullocks heaving burgeoning wool bales on a well-worn dray through boggy black soils on a nearby dirt road. In the century-plus since, we’ve been ...
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America’s founders thought that the freedom of the press was so important that they enshrined it in the republic’s constitution. In Australia, we also make much ado about press freedom as an essential underpinning of democracy – but what happens when there is no press? That’s what we’re seeing in rural and regional Australia, as the lights of small newspapers blink out one by one. The ...
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If nothing else, COVID-19 has reinforced the immense value of digital capability. Many businesses – including mine – were able to switch almost seamlessly from physical offices to online meetings and communication. My business has been operating as a ‘remote’ business model for 25 years, but as urban Australian’s catch up, I think that we as a nation have had time to adjust to working from ...
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If we take anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be that nothing worthwhile happens without collaboration and its inseparable twin, compromise. There has been a growing tendency to sideline these sensible approaches to problem-solving in Australia's public debates, and to instead win battles through political strength and favour. Human history repeatedly shows where this tactic takes ...
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It’s been 6 weeks since COVID-19 started to change the business landscape. Most organisations successfully communicated the impact of those changes to their customers, and the lucky ones are getting on with the “new” business-as-usual. But the dialogue shouldn’t stop there. As humans we communicate to inform, educate, reassure and maintain relationships. In business we do all of the same ...
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